1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for and a method of performing a corporate mileage service, and more particularly to a system for and a method of performing a corporate mileage service to distribute miles earned when a corporate employee uses a mileage-related service, e.g., an airplane, for the corporate business. More particularly. the present invention is concerned with a system (hereinafter also referred to as “corporate mileage performing system”) for and a method (hereinafter also referred to as “corporate mileage performing method”) of performing a corporate mileage service in an environment where each corporate employee can individually make a reservation for boarding an airplane or the like via a network such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
The widespread use of the Internet allows a corporate employee to make a reservation for boarding an airplane in a boarding reservation acceptance homepage provided by an airline company, without using an authorized travel agent, when the employee makes a business trip for the corporate business. When making such a reservation, the employee enters his or her mileage registration number to get miles of his or her own which are earned.
One conventional mileage service performing system will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows in block form the conventional mileage performing system.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional mileage service performing system comprises reservation terminal 201, boarding acceptance terminal 202, boarder information database device 203, and mileage information database device 204 which are connected to each other by network 206.
Operation of the conventional mileage service performing system will be described below. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a sequence of operation of the conventional mileage performing system shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 2, a corporate employee who wants to make a business trip using an airplane for the corporate business accesses a boarding reservation acceptance homepage provided by an airline company from reservation terminal 201, e.g., an Internet-connectable computer used by the employee. The employee makes a reservation for boarding an airplane and enters his or her own personal mileage identification number in the homepage. Boarding reservation information including the personal mileage identification number is transmitted to boarder information database device 203 in step 301.
Based on the received boarding reservation information, boarder information database device 203 asks for customer attributes of the employee. transmits returned customer attributes to reservation terminal 201 (referencing customer attributes), and stores the customer attributes and the boarding reservation information in combination in step 302.
When the employee checks in at a check-in counter in the airport, the clerk at the check-in counter uses boarding acceptance terminal 202 to transmit boarding acceptance information including a boarding history or boarding details to boarder information database device 203 in step 303.
Based on the received boarding acceptance information, boarder information database device 203 reflects the boarding history in a boarder information database, and transmits the boarding acceptance information to mileage information database device 204. Mileage information database device 204 returns a confirmation signal acknowledging the receipt of the boarding acceptance information to boarder information database device 203 in step 304.
Based on the received boarding acceptance information, boarder information database device 203 adds miles for the present boarding session to accumulated miles for the employee in step 305.
Upon request, mileage information database device 204 provides an article and a service based on certain accumulated miles to the employee, and then subtracts the miles corresponding to the article and the service which have been provided from the accumulated miles for the employee in step 306.
The above conventional mileage service performing system suffers from the following problems:
The first problem is that while the corporation for which the employee works bears the expenses of the business trip, the employee who makes the business trip acquires the miles earned by boarding the airplane.
The reason for the first problem is that in the conventional mileage service performing system, the earned miles belong to the boarder itself, and there is no means for giving the earned miles to the corporation which bears the boarding expenses.
The second problem is that partiality is created among the employees of the corporation.
The reason for the second problem is that employees who make business trips using airplanes enjoy the benefits of the mileage service, whereas other employees do not.
The third problem is that willful employees tend to plan a business trip using an airplane for the purpose of earning miles rather than business purposes.
The reason for the third problem is that miles earned by using an airplane belong to the employee who makes a business trip, rather than the corporation for which the employee works.